Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Are you a fan of lemon bars?  If you are, you definitely need to try out this recipe.  It's way easier than lemon bars, the lemon-y flavor isn't quite as strong, and they are oh so delicious.  As I described them yesterday to a family member, "They're like the cookie version of lemon bars."  Here's the recipe:

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

This was quick and easy to make, and as I already mentioned, I loved them.  They're pretty hard to mess up, and they turn out nice and fluffy.  They're amazing warm, but they taste great once they've cooled as well.

Chick-Fil-A Sandwiches

With all of the recent boycotting of Chick-Fil-A, it has become easier to find copycat recipes for their food online.  While I'm not boycotting them, I am on a budget, so making my own version of their sandwich sounded like a fabulous idea.  I found quite a few recipes, but decided to give this one a try.  (It looked the easiest).  Here's the recipe:

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast 
1/4 cup pickle juice (sour dill is my favorite) 
Optional: 1 teaspoon Tabasco 
1 egg 
1/4 cup milk 
1/2 cup flour 
1 tablespoon powdered sugar 
1/2 teaspoon paprika 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon black pepper 
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 
1/4 teaspoon celery salt 
1/4 teaspoon dried basil 
Optional: up to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper for a spicy sandwich 
Oil for frying (about a cup) 
2 toasted hamburger buns 
4 dill pickle slices 

“Place the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound gently with the flat side of a meat tenderizer until it’s about 1/2-inch thick all around. Cut the chicken into two even pieces, and place in a bowl. 

“Pour pickle juice over chicken and marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. Add a teaspoon of Tabasco for a spicy sandwich. 

“Beat the egg with the milk in a bowl. Combine the flour, sugar, and spices in another bowl. 

“Dip the chicken pieces into egg, coating both sides, then coat in flour. 

“Heat the oil in a skillet until it’s 345 to 350 degrees. Fry the chicken for about two minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. Blot with paper towels and serve on toasted buns with pickle slices.”

So this was pretty good for a semi-regular chicken sandwich.  It definitely wasn't as good as Chick-Fil-A's sandwich, but it's a pretty good copycat recipe.  There are other, more complicated copycat recipes out there that are probably even better, but I'll probably stick to this one for now.  

My one big suggestion would be to pound those chicken breasts down as much as you can - if it's too thick it'll be weird, hard to eat, and take longer to cook.

If you're craving a Chick-Fil-A style sandwich but don't want to fork over the money to buy one, (or don't have one nearby) go ahead and try this recipe!

Tuna Fajitas (or tacos)

Okay, the proper name for this is actually Soft Taco Filling: Tuna in Jalapeno Escabeche.  Kinda wordy though, so I just shorten it to tuna fajitas.  :)  I got this recipe from a family recipe book, but it can also be found here.

I am normally not a tuna fan.  I liked it as a kid, but for most of my teen and young adult life, tuna made me queasy.  I'm still not normally a huge tuna fan, but I actually really like this recipe.  Awesome, because now I have a way to get tuna in my diet.  Here it is:

Soft Taco Filling: Tuna in Jalapeño Escabeche

Atun en Escabeche de Chile Jalapeño

Makes 3 scant cups, enough for 12 tacos

Recipe from Season 6 of Mexico - One Plate at a Time

INGREDIENTS

1  12-ounce can pickled jalapeños
2 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
1 large white onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2  6-ounce cans tuna (tuna packed in oil works best here)
1/4 cup roughly chopped flatleaf parsley (or a mixture of fresh herbs)

DIRECTIONS

Remove the jalapeños and vegetables (typically carrots and onions) that have been packed with them; reserve the liquid.  Cut the stems off 2 to 3 of the jalapeños, cut them in half and scrape the seeds out; discard stems and seeds.  Thinly slice the chiles (you need about 1/4 cup).  Thinly slice some of the vegetables (you need about 1/4 cup of these also).

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium.  When hot, add the onion and cook until richly golden, about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 cup of the jalapeños pickling juice.  Let cool.  Stir the onions into the tuna, along with the sliced jalapeños and vegetables and the parsley or herbs. Set out for your guests to roll into warm tortillas to make soft tacos.

Since you're using tuna in oil, be careful not to dump in all the oil from the can or else the whole dish will be much too oily, and you don't want drippy fajitas.  Gross!  This dish is SPICY (if you want less spice, don't add any of the pickling juice and go easy on the peppers) and not very fish-y tasting, which I love.  It's easy, quick, and in my opinion, the best way to eat tuna.

*If you hate tuna, skip out on trying this recipe.  However, if you are "whatever" about it or like it, definitely give it a try!